R Data Structures and Algorithms

Abstract data type and data structure

The abstract data type (ADT) is used to define high-level features and operations for data structure, and is required before we dig down into details of implementation of data structure. For example, before implementing a linked list, it would be good to know what we want to do with the defined linked list, such as:

• I should be able to insert an item into the linked list
• I should be able to delete an item from the linked list
• I should be able to search an item in the linked list
• I should be able to see whether the linked list is empty or not

The defined ADT will then be utilized to define the implementation strategy. We will discuss ADT for different data structures in more detail later in this book. Before getting ...